Food object holder and drip preventer



1966 R. E. HETRICK ETAL 3,283,889

FOOD OBJECT HOLDER AND DRIP PREVENTER Filed Dec. 28, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet1 FIG.|

J I I INVENTORS. 27' 2055/27 Hf TQ/CK 2' Jb/wv Ml. Have/6K Nov. 8, 1966R. E. HETRICK ETAL 3,

FOOD OBJECT HOLDER AND DRIP PREVENTER Filed Dec. 28, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet2' FIG. IO

United States Patent 3,283,889 FOOD OBJECT HOLDER AND DRIP PREVENTERRobert E. Hetrick and John W. Hetrick, both of 22119 Hansom Ave.,Torrance, Calif. Filed Dec. 28, 1964, Ser. No. 421,560 3 Claims. (Cl.20656) Generally speaking, the present invention relates to a holdingdevice which, in a broad sense, may be said to comprise a food objectholding device and which, in a preferred exemplary form thereof, may besaid to comprise a sandwich holder which also acts as a drip preventeradapted to prevent liquid drippings from the sandwich from falling onones shirt front during the eating of a sandwich, particularly the typeof sandwich which is bought at a location other than home and isconsumed without the presence of dishes and a table in the manner of acustomary meal. In other words, when one buys such a sandwich and eatssame without any dishes or other protective means being provided exceptthe conventional paper wrapping for the rear end of the sandwich, itwill normally be found that a relatively juicy sandwich will leak andthe juice will tend to soak through such a protective sandwich paper orwrapping and drop onto the eaters shirt front (or dress front in thecase of a woman) in a highly undesirable manner. The novel device of thepresent invention completely prevents this and yet does so through theuse of a very inexpensive and simple device which provides a convenientmeans for feeding the sandwich toward ones mouth as it is progressivelyeaten away, while retaining sandwich drippings in a positive manner soas to prevent any undesirable dripping of the juices therefrom on anyportion of the person eating the sandwich. In fact, the novel sandwichholder and drip preventer of the present invention is of such simple,inexpensive construction as to make it possible to supply one with eachsandq wich purchased. After such a purchased sandwich is eaten, theholder device of the present invention may then be thrown away.

Furthermore, it should be noted that the novel holder and drip preventerof the present invention may be made in several forms suitable forholding virtually any size and/or shape of sandwich and, for thatmatter, various other food objects which might tend to leak. Also, ifdesired, the holder may be made of a somewhat more permanent type so asto be washable and reuseable in certain forms of the invention.

With the above points in mind, it is an object of the present inventionto provide a novel food object holder adapted to hold a food object andto protect a person eating same from drippings therefrom while providinga convenient means for feeding said food object toward the personsmouth.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a holder ofthe type referred to in the preceding object, wherein the food objectadapted to be held comprises a sandwich and wherein the means forfeeding same toward a persons mouth comprises pusher means carried bytray means in which the sandwich is adapted to rest so that the pushermeans may move the sandwich toward the persons mouth as it isprogressively eaten.

It is a further object of the present invention to pro vide a sandwichholder of the character referred to hereinbefore, wherein the entiredevice is initially integrally formed and/0r molded of an extremelylightweight material, such as a wood pulp material of paper-like orcardboard-like compositions or a plastic material (which may be ofexpanded and surface-sealed foam type or of various other suitabletypes) so that the manufacture of 3283,8859 Patented Nov. 8, 1966 thedevice is extremely inexpensive to a degree such that it may be used asingle time and then thrown away.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a noveldevice having the advantages referred to herein and including thefeatures referred to herein, generically and/or specifically, andindividually or in combination, and which is of extremely simple,inexpensive construction adapted for mass manufacture at very low costwhereby to be conducive to widespread use thereof.

Further objects are implicit in the detailed description which followshereinafter (which is to be considered as exemplary of, but notspecifically limiting, the present invention), and said objects will beapparent to persons skilled in the art after a careful study of thedetailed description which follows hereinafter.

For the purpose of clarifying the nature of the present invention,several exemplary embodiments of the invention are illustrated in thehereinbelow-described figures of the accompanying two sheets of drawingsand are described in detail hereinafter.

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of one exemplary embodiment of the inventionshown in an actual use relationship with respect to a substantiallycircular sandwich of the type conventionally known as a hamburger, whichcomprises a round bun, a fried ground meat patty filling, and variousrelishes, spices, sauces, and the like-said sandwich being shown inphantom.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary top plan view, generally similar to FIG. 1, butillustrates the pusher means after it has been digitally moved forwardlyto push the hamburger sandwich toward a discharge and egress meanscomprising the open front of the device to allow a person toprogressively eat the projecting edge portion of the hamburger sandwich.In fact, this view shows the apparatus after more than half of thephantom-line hamburger sandwich has already been eaten.

FIG. 3 is a front elevational view of the apparatus when in therelationship shown in FIG. 1 but with the phantom :hamhurger sandwichremoved for reasons of drawing simplification and clarity.

FIG. 4 is a right side cross-sectional view, taken substantially alongthe plane indicated by the arrows 4-4 of FIG. 1, illustrating theslightly rearwardly tipped position of the device when it is placed upona horizontal auxiliary supporting surface, thus preventing any of thedrippings or juice from a sandwich (not shown in FIG. 4) from drippingout of the open front portion of the device.

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4, but is taken along a planesubstantially as indicated by the arrows 5-5 of FIG. 2 and illustratesthe apparatus when the pusher means has been moved forwardly toward thedischarge and egress means, comprising the front opening of the device,for feeding a sandwich (not shown) forwardly.

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of a modified form of the invention with thepusher means in fully retracted relationship and with the tray meansshown holding a different type of sandwich comprising what isconventionally known as a hot dog, which consists of a longitudinallysubstantial cylindrical weiner carried between longitudinal halfportions of a general similarly shaped longitudinal bun and providedwith appropriate spices, seasonings, sauces, relishes, and/or the like.

FIG. 7 is a view generally similar to FIG. 6, but shows the pusher meansafter it has been digitally pushed forwardly, perhaps in a series ofsuccessive steps interspersed by eating operations, so as tocorrespondingly move the hot dog sandwich forwardly toward the open end,comprising the discharge and egress means into the proper projectingposition for allowing a person to progressively eat the projecting endof the. hot dog sandwich.

FIG. 8 is a view generally similar to FIG. 5 of the first form of theinvention, but illustrates the second form of the invention and issubstantially taken along the plane indicated by the arrows 8- 8 of FIG.7. However, in this view the broken line hot dog sandwich shownfragmentarily in FIG. 7 has been removed for reasons of drawingsimplification and clarity. Also, this view clearly illustrates therearwardly tipped relationship of the tray means when placed upon anauxiliary horizontal supporting surface, for the same purposes asoutlined hereinabove in connection with FIG. 4.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view taken substantially in in the directionof the arrows 99 of FIG. 7.

FIG. 10 is a top plan view generally similar to FIGS. 1 and 6, butillustrates a further modification of the invention adapted to hold aslightly different type of sandwich comprising a conventional sandwichmade of a pair of slices of what is commonly known as sandwich bread,each of which is substantially rectangular (actually square in theexample shown in phantom) as seen in plan view, with appropriatesandwich filling material being placed therebetween and also with anydesired relishes, sauces, seasonings, and so forth, being positionedbetween the rectangular pieces of sandwich bread. This View shows thepusher means before activation.

FIG. 11 is a view generally similar to FIGS. 2 and 7, although of themodified form of the invention shown in FIG. 10, and clearly illustratesthe apparatus after the pusher means has been operated to a substantialdegree and has pushed the broken line square type sandwich forwardly toa very substantial degree toward the front opening of the device,comprising the discharge and egress means, to enable a person toprogressively eat the projecting edge (actually, one corner) of thesandwich.

FIG. 12 is a front view of the modified sandwich holder shown in FIG.10, but with the broken line square type sandwich removed for reasons ofdrawing simplification and clarity.

FIG. 13 is a fragmentary view taken substantially along the planeindicated by the arrows 13--13 of FIG. 11 but with the square typesandwich, shown fragmentarily in phantom in FIG. 11, removed from FIG.13 for reasons of drawing simplification and clarity. Also, this viewclearly illustrates the rearwardly tipped relationship of the tray meanswhen placed upon an auxiliary horizontal supporting surfacethis beingfor the same purposes as outlined hereinbefore in connection with thedescription of FIG. 4.

Generally speaking, the exemplary first form of the inventionillustrated in FIGS. 1-5 may be said to comprise a sandwich holder anddrip preventer generally designated at 21 and including a downwardlyrecessed tray means 22 and a controllably digitally movably positionedpusher means 23 cooperable for pushing a sandwich, such as the hamburgertype sandwich indicated generally in phantom at 24, toward a personsmouth to facili' tate progressively eating the projection portion of thehamburger sandwich 24.

In said exemplary first form of the invention, the downwardly recessedtray means 22 has a bottom wall portion 25 and a laterally enclosingupstanding side wall portion 26 integrally conected with respect theretoand extending partially therearound and having what might be termed afront opening in said side wall portion 26 at what might be termed thefront edge or side thereof whereby to effectively comprise sandwich edgedischarge and egress means, generally designated by the referencenumeral 27, which merely comprises a complete front opening throughwhich the forward edge 28 of the hamburger sandwich 24 normally projectsto an extent slightly less than half of the depth, or back-to-front,dimension of the hamburger sandwich 24 so that when in the initialposition shown in FIG. 1 the hamburger sandwich 24 will have more thanhalf of the sandwich fully retained within the downwardly recessed traymeans and resting on the upper surface of the bottom wall portion 25thereof.

Such an arrangement, wherein the bottom wall portion 25 of the traymeans 22 is of approximately the same side-to-side dimension as(although slightly larger than) the side-to-side dimension of thehamburger sandwich 24 adapted to be received and held thereby andwherein said bottom wall portion 25 in a back-to-front direction has asomewhat smaller dimension which is slightly greater than half theback-to-front dimension of the hamburger 24, provides an arrangementsuch that the cen ter of gravity of the hamburger" sandwich 24 will lieat approximately the point indicated by the reference numeral 29 in FIG.1 and, thus the sandwich 24 will be firmly and fully supported by thebottom wall portion 25 of the tray means 22, but will have slightly lessthan half of the front portion 28 of the hamburger sandwich 24projecting through and beyond the front opening comprising theabovementioned discharge and egress means 27 so that said projectingsandwich portion 28 can be freely eaten by a person holding the completetray means 22 in one or both hands.

During such a hamburger sandwich eating operation, the tray means 22will normally be tipped downwardly somewhat toward the rear thereof, andthis will, of course, cause any juices or any other liquid or semiliquidconstituents which may leak from the hamburger sandwich 24 to runrearwardly along the upper surface of the bottom wall portion 25 of thetray means 22 toward the rear or back part B of the upstanding side wallportion 26, which will, of course, retain said juices and positivelyprevent them from leaking downwardly onto the eater in the undesirablemanner of prior art hamburgers when eaten with either no protection orwith a paper wrapper or bag over the rear end of the hamburger, whichnor mally becomes quickly saturated with such hamburger juices and leaksin a highly undesirable manner on the front of the clothing of theperson eating the hamburger.

As the initially projecting portion 28 of the hamburger sandwich 24 iseaten away in the manner described above, it may be progressively movedforwardly toward and partially through the discharge and egress means27, comprising the front opening referred to above, by the pusher means23 referred to above and which, in the exemplary first form of theinvention illustrated, comprises an arcuate upstanding element whichextends to a level somewhat above the upstanding side wall portion 26 ofthe tray means 22 and which is effectively hingedly connected withrespect to the left end of said upstanding wall means 26 of the traymeans 22 by effective hinge. means H, which actually comprises aneffectively weakened but still flexibly interconnected portion of theintegral material of which the entire device is formed, such ascardboard, paper board, or various other molded fibrous materials in thecase of the exemplary first form of the invention illustrated.

It will be noted that the bottom edge 31 of the pusher means 23 isseparate from and slightly spaced above the underlying bottom wallportion 25 of the tray means 22, thus mounting the pusher means 23 onlyby the left end positioned effective hinge means H for movement betweena completely retracted position as shown in FIGS. 1, 3, and 4, when thehamburger sandwich 24 is first placed within the tray means 22, and aforwardly displaced position such as is exemplified by the showing ofsaid pusher means 23 in FIGS. 2 and 5, wherein it has been digitallypushed forwardly to a desired degree such as to project the hamburgersandwich 24 forwardly over the front edge 32 of the bottom wall 25 as isclearly shown in FIG. 2 so that the projecting portion of the previouslypartly eaten hamburger sandwich 24 now extends forwardly to a degreesufiicient to allow it to be further progressively eaten. This operationof the pusher means 23, of course, can be such as to progressively movethe sandwich forwardly even further than as shown in FIG. 2 until thevery last portion of the hamburger sandwich 24 has been eaten.

It will be noted that the upper edge 33 of the pusher extendssubstantially above the level of the lateral upstanding side wall means26 of the tray means 22 so as to be conveniently accessible for digitalengagement when the pusher means is to be pushed forward in the mannerindicated in sequence in FIGS. 1 and 2. The small space or clearance 34between the lower edge 31 of the pusher 23 and the upper surface of thebottom wall portion 25 of the tray means 22 allows the pusher means 23to be pushed forwardly without pushing any juices which have leaked fromthe sandwich 24 forwardly at the same time said juices being adapted torun rearwardly under the action of gravity through said clearance space34 toward the rear portion of the upstanding wall means 26 of the traymeans 22. As shown in the figures, said clearance base 34 is somewhatexaggerated and may be reduced in magnitude and still function inaccordance with the preceding statement.

In the exemplary first form of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 1-5,the front edge 32 of the bottom wall portion 25 of the tray means 22 isprovided with a downwardly directed support means 35 which is adapted tocause the entire tray means 22 to tilt slightly toward the rear whenplaced on an auxiliary horizontal supporting surface, such as isindicated fragmentarily at 36 in FIGS. 3-5. This will, of course, cause,both a hamburger sandwich such as that shown at 24 in FIGS. 1 and 2, andany juices which have leaked therefrom, to be positively retained withinthe slightly rearwardly tipped tray means 22.

It should be noted that in the exemplary first form of the invention,the entire device is made of a blank of material, such as cardboard orthe like, formed into the downwardly recessed tray means 22 and havingthe integral pusher means 23 connected therewith and normally extendingfrontwardly therefrom. Said pusher means 23 may then be forciblydeflected and deformed rearwardly in a manner such as to effectivelyform the hinge means H and such as to position said pusher means 23 inthe presandwich eating relationship most clearly shown in FIGS. 1, 3,and 4. It should also be noted that said downwardly directed supportmeans 35 may be formed by bending downwardly and rearwardly an initiallyoutwardly projecting portion of the subsequent front edge 32 of thebottom wall portion 25. This is most clearly shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.

However, it should also be noted that the device may be manufactured inways other than those specifically referred to above and may be made ofmaterials other than paper-like or cardboard-like materials and, incertain cases, may be made of plastic material such as polystyrene foammaterial having compressed and sealed exterior surfaces, or variousother types of plastic material may be employed.

However, it is highly advantageous in at least certain forms of theinvention to make it of a material inexpensive enough to allow theholder means 21 to be thrown away after a single use.

Also, it is within the broad scope of the present invention to make thecomplete holder means 21 of an edible material, such as a relativelycrisply baked material made of dough or the like and appropriatelysurface sealed, thus providing a holder which can be eaten completely orin part, either along with the sandwich or subsequent thereto, ifdesired.

FIGS. 6-9 illustrate a slightly modified form of the invention, andportions which functionally correspond to those of the first form of theinvention illustrated in FIGS. 1-5 are designated by similar referencecharacters, primed, however. In this modification, it will be noted thatthe downwardly recessed tray means 22 is of a different configurationfrom the tray means 22 of the first form of the invention and actuallysimulates in appearance a longitudinal trough having the upstanding wallmeans 26 around three sides thereof essentially comprising the parallelleft and right sides thereof and rear side thereof as clearly shown inFIGS. 6 and 7, while the front side thereof has no such upstanding wallmeans 26 and effectively comprises a front opening or discharge andegress means 27 equivalent to the discharge and egress means 27 of thefirst form of the invention.

In this modification, the pusher means 23' is not integrally connectedto the tray means 22 in the manner of the first form of the invention,but instead comprises what might be termed a slider member 23 providedwith slider guide means generally indicated at 37 and comprising twoslider guide means side portions 378 and a slider guide means bottomportion 37B, all of which slide along the corresponding inside surfacesof the upstanding side wall means 26 and the bottom wall portion 25 ofthe tray means 22' so that the modified type of sandwich 24', comprisingwhat is conventionally known as a hot dog type sandwich, can beforwardly moved so as to extend through and beyond the discharge andegress means 27 and the front edge 32' of the bottom wall means 25' toany desired degree to facilitate the eating of the forwardly projectingportion 28' of said hot dog sandwich 27'.

Also, in this modified form of the invention, a front portion of thebottom wall means 25' is provided with a downwardly projectingsupporting means 35 functionally similar to the corresponding element 35of the first form of the invention and operable for the same purposeswhen the entire modified tray means 22 is placed upon an auxiliaryhorizontal supporting surface 36' as is clearly shown in FIG. 8.

Otherwise, this modified form of the invention is similar to the firstform of the invention described in detail hereinbefore and, therefore,no further description of this modification is thought necessary.

FIGS. 10-13 illustrate a further modification of the invention, andparts thereof which correspond to the first form of the inventionillustrated in FIGS. 1-5 and described in detail hereinbefore, aredesignated by similar reference characters, doubly primed, however.

It will be noted that, in the modification of FIGS. 10-13, all portionsthereof are substantially the same as the first form of the inventionwith the exception of the fact that the shape of the tray means 22" isno longer such as to comprise a portion of a cylinder but rathercomprises a slightly more than a half portion of a rectangularparallelepiped, and, correspondingly, the pusher means 23" is straightrather than arcuately curved. These modifications are for the purpose ofenabling the tray means 22" to receive slightly more than one-half of asquare or rectangular type sandwich 24 made with conventional sandwichslices of conventional sandwich bread which are square or rectangular inshape. Since all portions of this modification of the invention, withthe exception of the shape-changed portions just referred to, areessentially the same as the first form of the invention described indetail hereinbefore, no further detailed description of thismodification is thought necessary.

It should be noted that any of the various pusher means may be providedwith aperture means therethrough, if desired, for the purpose offacilitating the rearward passage of sandwich leakage juicestherethrough. This may be in lieu of, or as a supplement to, the type ofclearance space shown at 34 in the first form of the invention and at34" in the third form of the invention. It should also be noted that thetray supporting means, such as shown at 35, 35', and 35" in the threeforms of the invention illustrated, may be modified or, in certain formsof the invention, eliminated entirely.

It should be understood that the figures and the specific descriptionthereof set forth in this application are for the purpose ofillustrating the present invention and are not to be construed aslimiting the present invention to the precise and detailed specificstructure shown in the figures and specifically described hereinbefore.Rather,

the real invention is intended to include substantially equivalentconstructions embodying the basic teachings and inventive concept of thepresent invention.

We claim:

1. A food object holder and drip preventer, comprising: downwardlyrecessed tray means having a bottom wall portion and a laterallypartially enclosing upstanding side wall portion extending partiallytherearound and having a front opening in said side wall portioneffectively comprising food object discharge and egress means, saidbottom wall portion being, in a width direction, of a size adapted toreceive thereon a specific type of food object and being somewhatsmaller in a back-to-front direction extending between a back part ofsaid upstanding side wall portion and said front opening in said sidewall portion whereby to cause a front portion of said food object toproject forwardly into said discharge and egress means beyond a frontedge of a corresponding front part of said bottom wall portion tofacilitate eating said forwardly projecting portion of said food objectin an unobstructed manner; and pusher means oontrollably digitallymovably positioned within said downwardly recessed tray means betweensaid back part of said upstanding side wall portion and said dischargeand egress means for digitally caused movement toward said discharge andegress means for forcing said food object toward said discharge andegress means into a forwardly projecting relationship with respect toand beyond the front edge of the corresponding front part of said bottomwall portion; said bottom wall portion of said tray means being providedwith downwardly directed support means adapted to rest upon anunderlying substantially horizontally auxiliary supporting surface, andbeing so positioned and shaped as to cause said bottom wall portion tohave said front edge thereof higher than a back edge thereof in arearwardly downwardly tilted relationship with respect to saidunderlying substantially horizontal auxiliary supporting surface.

2. A food object holder and drip preventer, comprising: downwardlyrecessed tray means having a bottom wall portion and a laterallypartially enclosing upstanding side Wall portion extending partiallytherearound and having a front opening in said side wall portioneffectively comprising food object discharge and egress means, saidbottom wall portion being, in a width direction, of a size adapted toreceive thereon a specific type of food object and being somewhatsmaller in a back-to-front direction extending between a back part ofsaid upstanding side wall portion and said front opening in said sidewall portion whereby to cause a front portion of said food object toproject forwardly into said discharge and egress means beyond a frontedge of a corresponding front part of said bottom wall portion tofacilitate eating said forwardly projecting portion of said food objectin an unobstructed manner; and pusher means controllably digitallymovably positioned within said downwardly recessed tray means betweensaid back part of said upstanding side Wall portion and said dischargeand egress means for digitally caused movement toward said discharge andegress means for forcing said food object toward said discharge andegress means into a forwardly projecting relationship with respect toand beyond the front edge of the corresponding front part of said bottomwall portion; said front edge of said bottom wall' portion beingintegrally provided with downwardly directed support means adapted torest upon an underlying substantially horizontal auxiliary supportingsurface, and being so positioned and shaped as to cause said bottom wallportion to have said front edge thereof higher than a back edge thereofin a rearwardly downwardly tilted relationship with respect to saidunderlying substantially horizontal auxiliary supporting surface.

3. A food object holder and drip preventer, comprising: downwardlyrecessed tray means having a bottom wall portion and a laterallypartially enclosing upstanding side Wall portion extending partiallytherearound and having a front opening in said side wall portioneffectively comprising food object discharge and egress means, saidbottom wall portion being, in a width direction, of a size adapted toreceive thereon a specific type of food object and being somewhatsmaller in a back-to-fr-o-nt direction extending between a back part ofsaid upstanding side wall portion and said front opening in said sidewall portion whereby to cause a front portion of said food object toproject forwardly into said discharge and egress means beyond a frontedge of a corresponding front part of said bottom wall portion tofacilitate eating said forwardly projecting portion of said food objectin an unobstructed manner; and pusher means controllably digitallymovably positioned within said downwardly recessed tray means betweensaid back part of said upstanding side wall portion and said dischargeand egress means for digitally caused movement toward said discharge andegress means for forcing said food object toward said discharge andegress means into a forwardly projecting relationship with respect toand beyond the front edge of the corresponding front part of said bottomwall portion; said pusher means having a bottom edge spacedly positionedabove the top surface of said bottom wall portion of said tray means andtogether therewith defining a liquid flow clearance space to allowliquid leaking from said food object during the eating of the projectingfront portion thereof to pass rearwardly relative to said pusher meansand not be swept forwardly by said pusher means toward said dischargeand egress means.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS HUGO O. SCHULZ,Primary Examiner.

1. A FOOD OBJECT HOLDER AND DRIP PREVENTER, COMPRISINF: DOWNWARDLYRECESSED TRAY MEANS HAVING A BOTTOM WALL PORTION AND A LATERALLYPARTIALLY ENCLOSING UPSTANDING SIDE WALL PORTION EXTENDING PARTIALLYTHEREAROUND AND HAVING A FRONT OPENING IN SAID SIDE WALL PORTIONEFFECTIVELY COMPRISING FOOD OBJECT DISCHARGE AND EGRESS MEANS, SAIDBOTTOM WALL PORTION BEING, IN A WIDTH DIRECTION, OF A SIZE ADAPTED TORECEIVE THEREON A SPECIFIC TYPE OF FOOD OBJECT AND BEING SOMEWHATSMALLER IN A BACK-TO-FRONT DIRECTION EXTENDING BETWEEN A BACK PART OFSAID UPSTANDING SIDE WALL PORTION AND SAID FRONT OPENING IN SAID SIDEWALL PORTION WHEREBY TO CAUSE A FRONT PORTION OF SAID FOOD OBJECT TOPROJECT FORWARDLY INTO SAID DICHARGE AND EGRESS MEANS BEYOND A FRONTEDGE OF A CORRESPONDING FRONT PART OF SAID BOTTOM WALL PORTION TOFACILITATE EATING SAID FORWRDLY PROJECTING PORTION OF SAID FOOD OBJECTINAN UNOBSTRUCTED MANNER; AND PUSHER MEANS CONTROLLABLY DIGITALLY MOVABLYPOSITIONED WITHIN SAID DOWNWARDLY RECESSED TRAY MEANS BETWEEN SAID BACKPART OF SAID UPSTANDING SIDE WALL PORTION AND SAID DISCHARGE AND EGRESSMEANS FOR DIGITIALLY CAUSED MOVEMENT TOWARD SAID DISCHARGE AND EGRESSMEANS FOR FORCING SAID FOOD OBJECT TOWARD SAID DISCHARGE AND EGRESSMEANS INTO A FORWARDLY PROJECTING RELATIONSHIP WITH RESPECT TO ANDBEYOND THE FRONT EDGE OF THE CORRESPONDING FRONT PART OF SAID BOTTOMWALL PORTION; SAID BOTTOM WALL PORTION OF SAID TRAY MEANS BEING PROVIDEDWITH DOWNWARDLY DIRECTED SUPPORT MEANS ADAPTED TO REST UPON ANUNDERLYING SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTALLY AUXILIARY SUPPORTING SURFACE, ANDDBEING SO POSITIONED AND SHAPED AS TO CAUSE SAID BOTTOM WALL PORTION TOHAVE SAID FRONT EDGE THEREOF HIGHER THAN A BACK EDGE THEREOF IN AREARWARDLY DOWNWARDLY TILTED RELATIONSHIP WITH RESPECT TO SAIDUNDERLYING SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTAL AUXILIARY SUPPORTING SURFACE.